The Health Edge: Microbiome-Gut-Brain Health Part Two

In part two, of this series on the connection between lifestyle, alterations of the microbiome, gut and brain connections and behavioral health, John and Mark examine the literature using fermentable foods and probiotics. In these studies, improvements in mood, anxiety, appetite regulation, cognition, and brain structure-function have been demonstrated. Mark and John summarize lifestyle interventions that can improve behavioral-mental health and allow people to come off or avoid psychtropic drugs, anti-depressants, and anxiolytics.

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2 thoughts on “The Health Edge: Microbiome-Gut-Brain Health Part Two”

Peter

This is fascinating topic with lots of potential for “thread drift”. A favorite example of brain hijacking told among mushroom foragers is that of Codyceps:

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, also referred to as a zombie fungus, infects ants of the Camponotini tribe, with the full pathogenesis being characterized by alteration of the behavioral patterns of the infected ant. Infected hosts leave their canopy nests and foraging trails for the forest floor, an area with a temperature and humidity suitable for fungal growth; they then use their mandibles to affix themselves to a major vein on the underside of a leaf, where the host remains until its eventual death. The process leading to mortality takes 4–10 days, and includes a reproductive stage where fruiting bodies grow from the ant’s head, rupturing to release the fungus’s spores.

Our bugs have evolved with us from before we were human, I think the hard thing to believe would be, that after millions of years, two way communication was absent.
Hope to hear more on this subject, great two part podcast!
Peter

Great stuff peter! Thanks for sharing! Between epigenetics and the microbiome research I believe it is fair to say that we are in the midst of a revolution of transformation in our understanding of human biology and physiology. As the great Yogi (Yogi Berra) once said, “The future ain’t what it used to be”.